Posted: December 10, 2013

Mintel Beauty & Personal Care announced the key trend it sees as set to impact global beauty consumers in 2014—Mixologiste. Blurred lines between beauty technology are becoming increasingly common, with overlaps between skin care, hair care and color cosmetics. Combining the most exciting technology and marketing from more than one category, beauty brands and manufacturers are creating new combinations with new products, packaging, marketing and merchandise.

Jane Henderson, global president of Mintel’s beauty and personal care division, explains, “Mixologiste is fast becoming the stand-out trend that spans all beauty and personal care categories. This is a key mega trend, in development for the last year or so, but we are set to see it really accelerating in 2014. While manufacturers have worked with multifunctionality for a number of years, we are now seeing them take inspiration from completely different categories to create new products and marketing messages. The huge success of BB creams has led manufacturers to think about how they can build on their existing portfolios and add excitement to sometimes saturated sectors. New combinations will continue to evolve, resulting in new products, packaging, marketing and merchandising. This will add a new sense of excitement to the market and will drive innovation in the year ahead.”

Mintel’s exclusive consumer research highlights the popularity of multifunctional makeup in the U.S., with as many as 70% of U.S. female consumers expressing an interest in multifunctional lip products, and 65% showing interest in multifunctional facial coverage products, for example those which combine the benefits of foundation and concealer. And while saving time and cost are highlighted as the benefits of these products, the research shows how time-poor U.S. consumers perceive time saving (68%) to be a greater benefit than reduced costs (63%).

In China, almost half (46%) of Chinese makeup users express an interest in trying new products with multifunctionality (such as 2-in-1 eye shadow and blusher), while almost one in three (29%) agree that multifunctional products (e.g., BB cream) perform as well as products designed for single purpose. Around four in ten (37%) say they like products that have cosmetic benefits as well as care for their skin. Reduced cost is seen to be a benefit for a third (34%) of Chinese consumers who say that buying multifunctional products is more economical than buying products separately.

But while multifunctionality is popular in the U.S. and China, it is not yet as popular in the U.K., where just a quarter (25%) of women say they are interested in products which have cosmetic benefits as as well as care for the skin, such as BB cream and tinted lip balm.

“Hybrids are not just occurring in beauty—recently we have seen food and drink catching up with beauty. First there were BB creams and then there were cronuts. Of course we saw this trend several decades ago with 2-in-1 shampoos, but these new hybrid products are becoming more ambitious and exciting. The success of hybrids such as BB creams has inspired manufacturers to explore different ways through which they can bring categories together to create something exciting for consumers. Instead of cannibalizing sales, these products are acting as add-on products and not simply replacement products,” Henderson continues.

Vivienne Rudd, director of insight, beauty and personal care, says, “It’s an exciting time for color cosmetics, which have extended their scope into some unexpected areas. Hair chalks blend makeup with temporary colorants, primers now extend to pre-styling treatments and CC creams have moved beyond facial color cosmetics in to nail care, lipsticks and even hair care. The coming years will see even more developments as manufacturers build on the excitement and pique consumers’ interest in more adventurous formats and claims.”

Mohamed Omer, global hair care analyst, notes, “Newly launched hair BB creams that promise to protect and reinforce hair fiber are being inspired by the growth of skin BB creams. Hair perfumes offer both a standalone product and an extension to fragrance ancillaries and a bath and body collection. Besides leaving hair smelling fresh, they also protect hair against UV damage, color fading, helping consumers retain maximum moisture, condition and nourishment. Recent innovation in hair care has been inspired by makeup products, we see hair style-extender that locks hair style for a longer time and hair foundation for hair touch-up treatments.”

Christopher Lindsley, global skin care analyst, shares, “Skin care has an opportunity to cross-over into any number of beauty categories. We’ve already had BB, CC and even DD creams, with EE creams set to make an appearance too. The first treatment fragrances have already hit the market, and textiles and food and drink are making growing use of skin care actives too. In the future, we will see targeted skin care delivery systems through fabrics, fragrances and food, and further work on hybrids that bring together skin care, devices and diagnostics.”

And Emmanuelle Moeglin, global fragrance analyst, says, “Consumers are increasingly looking for added value in beauty products and fragrance is no exception. In the fragrance field, there is room to innovate by extending the category to new formats and added benefits. We expect hair fragrances to offer more than scent with targeted and time-release delivery of specific benefits such as antioxidants, vitamins, pigments and UV filters. Other formats like scented skin care products and fragrance for clothes are still untapped but have potential to grow the fragrance offerings. A third of French women report interest for ski ncare products that contain their favorite fragrance, and four in ten Italian women are interested in fragrance for clothes, highlighting the potential to disseminate benefits between fabric care and the fragrance categories.”

And it seems it is not just multi-use products set to impact the future, but also complementary categories. “New technology will offer even more exciting hybrid products going forward—innovation will come not only from beauty but from complementary categories such as textiles, devices, sensors, 3D and 4D printing, food and drink and automotives. Of particular interest are new delivery systems and packaging, both or which will see significant advances. These will impact most beauty categories, but the sharpest focus will be on skin care, hair care and fragrance.” concludes Rudd.